Cereal, it's what's for breakfast: making your own Corn Flakes and Honey Bunches of Oats
- Jenni Lippold
- Oct 13, 2015
- 2 min read
So we have been doing the yogurt plus fruit plus granola thing for breakfast pretty consistantly since we started this zero waste challenge. Namely because even if you are lucky to find organic cereal choices ( and you should look for organic because man oh man, the scary ingredients in non organic corn flakes, captain crunch, cocoa puffs...!), they always come inside plastic. Even if the box is not all waxed up, there is almost always a plastic layer, and I have yet to find a bulk cereal option that isn't muesli ( sorry, not a fan).
But my daughter stares at me with big blue eyes and says she misses cereal and milk. Jeez.
Ok, so researching cereal creation is tough because most recipe's 'cereal' is granola. No, I want flakes, like corn flakes, and flakey cereal tid bits- not exactly granola.
I found the recipe that sounded like it would produce the most corn flakey like flakes and gave it a whirl. It is literally just yellow corn meal ( which New Seasons has in bulk and it's organic!) sugar, salt, vanilla extract and water. That's it! No robeetusumpolyglugumcolor#5phosaphate at all!
Here is the recipe:
First attempt was a total bust. :-(
Two things: One, I don't think adding the extra "dusting of corn meal" on top before baking was a good idea- too much extra crunch. Two, I didn't pour the soupy substance out thin enough into the pans. The result- super thick corn flakes that were really, really corn tasting. Ick.
Second attempt worked! I did the following:
1. Added some brown sugar ( another 1/2 tbs) to the mix to calm the super corn savory favor.
2. I used three pans instead of two and spread the soupy mix out as thin as I could get it.
3. I did not do the dusting of corn meal before baking-
and voila- honest to God good tasting corn flakes!
And then in researching something a bit more full bodied, if you will, I found this tid bit on making Honey Bunches of Oats!
So I took my corn flakes I made, and tossed them with a little bit of granola and some shaved almonds in some honey butter with a bit of cinnamon. I toasted the mix on some trays and voila again- honey bunches of oats! It smelled and tasted the same!
The only difference I will say is that the mix is bit heartier than store bought and the flakes still a tad thicker- but it did taste good! And an added bonus, that 'chemy' soreness you get in your gums from crunching the processed flake cereal is not there! Yay for real food ingredients- and zero plastic.
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